Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Cirocco Live Liquid Cooled Rack

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the big-iron-on-the-hip dept.

Mark Grant writes "Cirocco have developed a liquid cooled rack of AMD Duron 1.1Gs in a Beowulf cluster. The rack has been installed in Cambridge University, England and has been under trial since Christmas. The system is being put through its paces running chemical research algorithms. Critical to Cirocco's liquid cooling system are the hot swappable quick couplings. These allow servers to be disconnected whilst the cooling system is in operation." The graph with live temperature readings is pretty neat.

3 of 119 comments (clear)

  1. Quite Dangerous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    While it's possible to secure this sort of thing so that water doesn't leak out from the cooling system, it's much harder to manage a _very_ large cluster of processors cooled by water. Cooling a cluster with air is easier, because you only have to watch to see if a fan breaks down, and that can be automated. Cooling a cluster with water is more dangerous in that you really should inspect it visually every so often to see if moisture is leaking out from the couplings (or condensing on the pipes). So really, could you imagine having to maintain a Beowulf cluster of these?

  2. Re:Wow! by Old+Wolf · · Score: 2, Interesting

    serious question - is it possible to have a Beowulf cluster of Beowulf clusters?

  3. maybe... by deadsaijinx* · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm missing something. As cool as it is, why do you need to liquid cool 1.1Ghz Athlons. Its nothing a fan can't handle adequitely and at a much more desireable cost. Are they just going for the wow factor, or is there an actually reason for the liquid cooling.

    Was going to make a beowulf joke, but then you insensitive clods would mark me redundant (I'm only like the 20th poster, how redundant can I be?)

    --
    YOU SUCK BALLS!